Zuko felt like a kid in a candy store the moment he had laid eyes on Katara.

And tonight was no different.

Despite his Uncle's over the top antics Katara seemed to be enjoying herself, between the home-styled menu and Zuko's awkwardly funny company. She'd even laughed at his incomplete tea joke!

"Leaf me alone, I'm bushed!"

"I can only imagine how much funnier it is when you tell the whole joke," she'd teased as she giggled at him.

Zuko blushed. "Yeah, it's usually funnier when Uncle tells it."

He felt like he'd already learned so much about Katara in just a short evening. Her favorite dish was sea prune stew (his Uncle's had been 'delicious, but can't compare to GranGran's'), her favorite tea was jasmine, and she was a master penguin sledder.

She was everything Zuko had never even thought to dream of. She was smart, funny, quick-witted, kind-hearted.

Most of all, she seemed to be actually interested in him, not his status.

"So, what's the business world like?" she asked in between mouthfuls of stew. She ate like a rabid komodo rhino, so different from Mai's practiced, posh nibbling of meals.

He loved it

He was pretty sure he loved her, but that was crazy.

He'd been in Ba Sing Se for less than a week, and he'd been single only a little longer than that. From a very long-term relationship no less. There was no way he'd fallen head over heels for some nameless Water Tribe animal doctor who just so happened to have gotten to Ba Sing Se the day after him.

That was the kind of stuff his old nannies Lo and Li had watched on the Hallmark and Lifetime channels when he was a kid.

Yet here he was.

"It's, ah, well, you know," Zuko tried to explain, struggling to find the right words. How did he say boring but exciting every now and again without sounding like a half-assed prick?

"Mmm, nope, I don't know actually," Katara teased, looking down and making a face at her empty bowl.

"Very funny," Zuko retorted. "It's… business," he settled on. "Sometimes you're making amazing new deals and expansions and creating startups, the rest of the time you're just stuck behind a load of emails and business reports like any other office schmuck."

"I see," Katara answered, taking a sip of her tea. She turned thoughtful blue eyes onto him as she asked, "And do you feel fulfilled doing that?"

Zuko blinked a few times at her as he tried to process the question.

Do I feel fulfilled doing that?

I don't know, I've never known anything else.

"Well that's almost a little sad then," Katara murmured. "Being almost forced into your career then."

Had he said those thoughts out loud? Apparently.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Zuko answered, frowning down into his reflection in his tea, where nothing but his angry, red, scarred eye stared back at him.

Images of fists of fire ignited in his mind the longer he looked, so he tore his gaze away and cleared his throat, trying to lighten the air.

"I'm sorry," Katara began, "I didn't mean to-"

"No, you're fine, Katara," Zuko interjected. "You just, well, you made a very good point there," he assured her.

He had been forced into this role.

This role of responsible business man and prince.

This heir to a dynasty of monopoly over the Four Nations business and industry.

His father had his thumb over practically every bigwig and CEO on the planet. One day it was meant to be his thumb that would be over them and entire nation as well.

Frankly, he wasn't sure how he felt about it. It was all just expected of him, so he did it.

And he'd never really thought about how sad that was until now.

"Enough about me though," Zuko said, lightening his tone. "I'd love to hear more about you. Tell me, what got you interested in vet med?"

Katara pursed her lips at him for a moment, and he knew she knew he was trying to change the subject, but to his relief she quickly lapsed back into a smile and answered.

"I used to go out and help my grandmother when the tiger seals were having a particularly rough birthing season, and I remember the first pup and mother we couldn't save. I felt so helpless," she admitted.

Zuko's eyebrow raised and he leaned in, intrigue and the faint throb of heartache swirling in him for the little girl who'd tried her best and still failed.

"So," Katara continued, "I decided that day to become a vet, so I would know what to do and how to save as many animal's lives that I could."

"Wow," Zuko breathed, in awe of the woman sat before him. He had all the money and the power in the world waiting for him, and he'd throw it all away just to listen to her talk more about her passions and wants in life.

They certainly made business deals and meetings seem like garbage by comparison.

"You must be very passionate about your work then?" he asked.

Katara nodded and took another sip of her tea. "There's nothing like it. I get to see so many amazing things, and I get to watch the cutest animals heal and get healthy right before my eyes," she sighed. "We even got the most adorable little tiger cubs at the zoo today. Their mother was killed by poachers, and they've been on their own for a while. I'm hoping Pakku and I will be doing their check-ups tomorrow."

Zuko had never heard of such a thing as a plain tiger cub, but just as he opened his mouth to ask her more about them, the blast of a tsungi horn startled them both. A band broke out into an upbeat rendition of Four Seasons (For Love), a popular love ballad Zuko had been hearing on the radio station lately.

Oh, Uncle, Zuko groaned internally, sinking down into his chair as a group of men in pirate costumes danced their way into the dining hall. They pulled a laughing Katara from her chair and onto a makeshift dance floor by the band.

"Arrrghhhh!" one pirate actor growled at him. "We be takin' your precious booty for our own! Fight for her if ye daaaare!" he cried as he moonwalked back towards the group.

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and hoped his face wasn't too red from embarrassment. He heard Katara cry out through bouts of laughter.

"Oh no! Zuko, who's gonna save me!"

Me, he thought. I'll be your knight in shining armor Katara.

His phone buzzed in his pocket as he stood, and he clicked ignore without looking. Whoever it was could wait.

He had a waterbender to save.

The band cheered and played louder as he made his way towards the dizzying dance the pirates were putting on.

They twirled and swayed so fast he had to duck several times to avoid a flinging arm or leg as they made a funhouse dance maze with their bodies. It seemed like every time he'd get close to Katara they'd twirl her away.

Until finally, finally, he swung around and caught her by the wrists, leaning in close enough for their panting breaths to mingle as he murmured, "I'll save you from the pirates."